Decius wrote:

Furthermore, I want to point out that ICANN is totally inept at choosing TLDs in general. I don't think that they should be allowed to do it. They have too much power to shape the internet, they are really not accountable to anyone, and they are terrible at it.

I agree. This adoption of new TLDs with little thought and no restrictions on registering inside them is causing some serious issues.

Look at .tv. No one uses it. I should be able to type in [anytvshowname].tv and get its website. I can't. Fox, ABC, and other stations already have websites. .TV does nothing for them. It just another thing for registrars to sell.

The owner of ford.tv might have a TV show on some local cable access channel. Ford Motor Company has ford.com. There is no reason for them to need ford.tv. However, companies don't see that .tv is another TLD that is supposed to logically seperate things. Instead, they see FORD. So they sue. ICANN and registrars not having requirements or restriction to register inside these new TLDs re-enforces the idea that the .tv TLD is nothing special. From their point of view ford.tv is not any different from ford.com.

I really, really wish I could go back in time and bitch-slap the person who decided that people other than ISPs can have .net and the people other than government recognized non-profits can have .org. Structure is gone, and ICANN is piling on more TLDs.

RE: CNN.com - Stage set for '.xxx' Internet addresses - Jun 2, 2005